Roleplay

Quincy heaved heavy breaths, clutching his chest. He reached up and felt his horns which felt.. brittle, somehow. Hollow. This always happened after a transformation, but this was a new level of emptiness. He’d probably need time to recover; using his magic would help restore it, probably.

He waved Apollo’s hand away, “Thanks, but i’ll be fine.”

“I think i used all of it. Just a second ago, you had every ounce of magic I ever did, but it’s slowly coming back to me. Once i return to my realm, that magic will come with me, but unlike other enchanted, you can call on it at any time.” He smiled, closing his eyes as he began to relax.

Cheryl was too busy gaping at Apollos unfamiliarity until it faded and she caught the last part of what he had said. She kept looking at the empty air where his extra horns used to be, and for some reason she couldn’t imagine Apollo with such power.

She sat infront of Apollo, toying with his hand.

“So, you’ll both be ok, right?”

Quincy spoke up, “I’ll be fine. I don’t die. Apollo’s the one to worry for; I’m not sure how this would affect him. This process was… messier than previous ceremonies in the past.”

She looked back down at Apollo’s hand, warming it up in her own in contrast to the breeze that was picking up around them.

“You guys should rest for the remainder of the day, just until the moon is above you. Then travel that way.” he pointed to the city.

Cheryl didn’t follow Quincy’s gaze, and she didn’t share his enthusiasm. She tried not to think about the city or anything in it.


((whoops late post

yeah the commission widgets are pretty much useless ;-;

Apollo sat still in shock for a moment. Every ounce of a Quincy’s magic had just been used. Every ounce of it was at his fingertips, just within his reach.

Every ounce of magic, ready to overflow and cause destruction.

The pain and rush of feeling and mana that he had experienced during the process gave him a rough idea of just how much magic there was. And just how destructive it could be. If he tried to call upon the magic right now… even using a fraction would probably be dangerous.

“I… think I’m ok?” Apollo said, stretching his neck. “I don’t think it’d be a good idea to use it right away though. I feel like I would end up hurting someone.” He looked down at his free hand, still shaking.

“I could feel just how much magic there was, it didn’t fit in me nicely. Just using a tiny bit might release everything…” He closed his hand and looked over at Cheryl and Quincy. “I’ll be fine. I just won’t call on it until we’re… safer?” Near the city, near anyone honestly, wasn’t safe. Once they were far from any civilization, then they would be safe.

Apollo noticed how Cheryl avoided where Quincy pointed, towards the direction of the city. He squeezed her hand, not knowing the right words to say to her. “We’ll be fine.” He said, smiling at her. He leaned against the boulder, trying to get comfortable to sleep.

————————————

By the time Xander found the group Apollo and Cheryl were fast asleep. “Did it work?” He turned, asking Quincy. He hoped it had work.

In the past long ceremonies were used for this process. They often spanned weeks or months as the host physically and mentally prepared for the power they would receive.

He and Quincy didn’t have the luxury of that time, they had to rush everything. The world was in peril, people were dying, and it was probably their fault.

“Quincy.” Xander turned and spoke in a hushed voice. “What exactly is our plan? All of us spirits sealed our memories of that day away. How are we meant to fix this mess if we can’t remember.” Xander didn’t say what he thinking about how to fix that issue. They had made a promise, an oath, to never regain those memories. He wanted to stand by that oath… but if there was no other option. Well, maybe he would bend the rules a little bit.

((Late post gang ayyy

I have a feeling that this part might disappear as we now have DA chatting

Quincy waited until they both fell asleep to get up. He stood up on shaky legs, afraid if he didn’t use them, he’d fall. Cheryl had fallen asleep against Apollo, and Quincy wished he could offer them both a warmer solution.

He turned to Xander, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He hadn’t forgotten about that little inconvenience.. He had just chosen not to think about it. But apparently he had to answer that now.
He thought for a minute.
``Well… opening it would create fundamental division. And I’m not sure the other spirits would see the true value of doing the one thing we all agreed, very specifically, not to do. So.. either we make more war to fix the first war, or we try to fix the one we have going on without context.`` He pinched the bridge of his nose, frustration boiling.

``Or… maybe it doesn’t have to be us.`` His brain jumped to this thought and stuck to it like glue as it festered the longer he stayed on it. ``Yes, that’s perfect. We never said anything about the physical realm. I mean… they’d have to get past Fiona, if she’s still even at the islands. But she might be open to them. She was never a harsh spirit.``

He nodded as if reassuring himself. ``This is fine, right?``


``It’ll have to do..``.

He looked back at them, marveling at such strength. He as a spirit never had to worry about betraying family, being betrayed, or hurt, or even about survival. They were just trials he never had to endure.

The physical realm, in it’s own way, was so much stronger than them.

He turned away, letting his body fade. ``We should leave. Check back at the sun’s last light tomorrow.``

—

---

Cheryl’s body stll refused to sleep restfully. She had woken up at least another two times, but managed to get in a few hours before she woke up a third time, when finally the moon was over the horizon. She heaved a sigh, not in the mood. She wanted to curl up in a nice soft blanket and drink tea with Apollo, not go steal from a place she worked so hard to escape from.

She got up anyway. Time to go save the world, or something.

``Apollo,`` she nudged him through a yawn. ``Apollo, we should leave.`` She had this weird, twitchy, urgent energy. Like she wanted to get it over with so she could powerwalk past the mental breakdown of having to actually do the thing.

((well, it's this place's fault for not letting me have emojis vnv

Quincy’s idea would probably work.

Probably.

“That could work.” Xander said, pondering. Loopholes could be found in almost everything, and somehow they’d managed to stumble into this one. While nothing about the physical realm had ever been mentioned, it still posed some issues. Like getting to the book, and then knowing what to do with it, and making sure not to release any of the other pages.

The way the seal had worked, the memories of the fall were imbued into a book, bound into pages that couldn’t be read until they were ripped out. All the spirits had agreed to seal these memories for whatever reason and then the Earth spirit, Fiona, was left to guard the book and the isle of old. The place of origin for this whole disaster.

“I’m sure she’d be welcoming towards them.” He looked over at the two of them, curled up and asleep. Fiona would probably see them as some sort of small woodland creature in her mind or… something. She had a habit of assigning animals to people and Xander was still salty at his own assigned animal, that of a porcupine.

“As long as nobody figures out we specifically came up with this plan it should be all right. If they wanted to grab the pages all on their own then we had nothing to do with it.” He took one last look at them before fading away with Quincy, back to the spirit realm.

---

Apollo was still half asleep as he moved to get up. It was rather late, but then again they needed to keep moving. Moving at night was the safest option, although returning to the city was probably not.

They didn’t really have a choice though, Cheryl needed to get the reservoir so she could gain magic. Which, once that happened, they would leave to go on a quest to save the world or whatever Quincy and Xander had planned. He looked around to see if the spirits where there and was a little disappointed to see that they were not.

“We should ask them about the plan when they come back.” Apollo said to Cheryl, finally shaking off the last bit of sleepiness. Granted, he was still tired but now he could walk. “I guess we should get going.” Apollo looked up at the moon, shedding its light through the trees. He held Cheryl’s hand as they began to walk. Whatever was ahead of them now, they would face together.

((Debating if Apollo will try and use magic when Fathom is inevitably confronted

Cheryl nodded, pushing away any thoughts of anything other than the city. It was time to switch gears, time to focus on going in and getting out rather than avoiding the inevitable. She didn't realize how tense she was until Apollo grabbed her hand and he body subconsciously relaxed. She wanted to appreciate the familiar gesture so much more than she currently was, but her mind was too full of fear to allow much room for anything else.

She basically power-walked the whole way. Her diaphragm had formed a bruise she didn't have to see to know was there, since every step it hurt. And her legs were slowly becoming accustomed to long-distance, even though she was still relatively inexperienced. Perhaps it was determination, perhaps it was fear that squeezed in on both sides until there was nowhere to go but forward. Either way, it didn't take too long to reach the city. Or maybe it just that it seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

The smell reached them before the sight did--smog was sticky and generally tended to stay strongest around the city, so it was like walking into a curtain of thick, heavy, wet smoke when they came remotely close.

It was gross. Just the smell made Cheryl tense back up.

Next step: make sure Apollo wasn't screaming "free magic!".
Once the city was within boundary, she let herself slow down and turn to him. She reached up and pulled his hood over his broken horn, which, sickeningly, was much easier to hide now.

Now: Find her father's apartment without dying. She remembered the route clearly, but the only safe ways were through alleyways and other dark routes. Once they got to the main road, she only let them push through the heavy onslaught of people for a few minutes before breaking off into an alley that had a few strange things around it, but nothing they couldn't avoid. The few unfortunate rats and street cats that had to live in the city generally avoided them. These alleyways weren't necessarily popular, but they were commonly traveled by those who had to fight to make a living.

At some point, they got to a dead end with a single dumpster, which she hopped onto and onto the roof of the short building directly above it. She held out a hand to Apollo and helped him up, talking as she continued on. ``This isn't normally the route I used to take. Normally I go down to Wetmetal street, which is a lot further down, but it's also a lot more crowded. That place is like a flytrap for gangs. Me and Xenon used to place bets there all the time, and sometimes I could take a little cash back to Dad.``

She paused to look down and concentrate on not falling as she crossed a wooden plank from one building to the next, then motioned for Apollo to fallow. ``Don't look down,`` she said, too monotone and tired to make a joke out of it.

``Anyway,`` she continued. ``This route is just safer. People still come up here--people we don't want to run into. But lucky us, it's almost dawn and they only come up here around the evening, normally.``

It was like a reverse ocean. The deeper into the city they got, the bigger and thicker the buildings became until it was like a giant metal jungle. It was almost raining oil. Cheryl, fortunately, had tolerated the less-than-lovable environment for so long, her mind went into city-gear without even thinking about it, even though she still felt like she could choke on every breath.

``It's better to take deep, slow breaths here. It sucks and you'll hate it, but it's the only way to get a decent amount of oxygen. I hear the hospital children have to wear oxygen tanks until their five if they want to live past thirty. I didn't, but the city wasn't this big or rotten when I was five either.``

After about another half hour of walking and crossing buildings, once they were probably an hour away from the heart of the city, she pointed up to an apartment building that was half-hidden by the smog. ``That’s the one.``

She found an alleyway with a ladder and slid down, motioning for Apollo to follow. She then took his hand, making sure it was firm in her grasp before trudging onwards to the main road and hurting to the front door. She was trembling from head to toe now, but kept her head down as she pushed the door open.

Inside seemed like it was once a very classy apartment. It used to have white walls-which paint was falling off of–and red couches and flimsy gold accents that should have looked really nice. The receptionist's desk was empty, with a sign that said “on lunch break” on the top. Dust had gathered on it, and the chair was knocked over.

She made a deadline for the elevator, which was a rickety old thing (really, it was a miracle this thing still worked), and dragged Apollo inside. She pressed the button at the top–”42”.

``Uh. You might want to stay by the elevator. He’ll be here–h-he always comes home and celebrates after a big raid. I-I don’t think it’s best if he sees you again.`` She wouldn’t look him in the eye as she spoke, and her voice had gotten smaller. She looked smaller, too–like if she slouched enough she’d be able to crawl into the nearest hole.


((BIG BOY POST

ooooohh maybe like a last resort thing, like the talking method didn't work and they like "aight this b crazy its time to freikin go"

As they approached the city, Apollo felt his stomach tighten. The towering metal buildings blocked out the moonlight, casting looming shadows over everything and drowning the landscape in dread. The smog choked his lungs and he did his best to breathe through the smoke-like environment. Normally, Apollo would bury his nose in a scarf but he didn’t have one now.

Not to mention he’d be going without magic.

Well, technically he had magic but he didn’t trust himself with it yet. Not without some sort of guidance, not without safely practicing first.

Apollo stood still as Cheryl pulled up his hood. It fell loosely on his head and he had to adjust so it was out of his eyes. Without his horn the larger hood had nothing to be propped up by. It was easier to hide now, at least, and if his hood ever fell down all he’d have to explain were his ears.

As Cheryl led him through the crowd of people Apollo warily watched the people around them. He hadn’t been to this side of the city before and the city at night seemed a lot more dangerous than it normally was. He breathed a sigh of relief when Cheryl pulled him to a side alley, although he nearly choked on the smog he inhaled.

As they hopped up the dumpster and onto the roof, Apollo took in the marvel of the city. Sure, it was full of fights and crowded streets and was really smelly, but there was a beauty to it as well. The buildings glistened in the moonlight, lights in and on buildings twinkling like stars. Snow that was untouched on buildings added contrast to the dreary colors and for once the moon was visible. If things were different, he would come here more often, just for the view. The wilderness had many natural beauties but the city had some sort of enchanting allure. How was it possible for humans, who hated magic, to create something so magical?

He warily went over the beam, trying to focus on his balance and not the ground. He really shouldn’t have looked down. After safely getting across, Apollo listened as Cheryl kept explaining city routes. He couldn’t imagine living in a place like this. Having to remember what routes to take, who to avoid, not to mention having to remember all these different buildings. Sure, he’d learned to navigate the forest around his village, but this metal jungle was something else.

As they kept going, Apollo listened to Cheryl’s breathing instructions. It really was harder to breathe, especially since he was used to fresh air out in the snowy plains and forests. Still, the sights of the city, even as things started to get cloaked in smog, was breathtaking. He wanted to stop and sit on the rooftops about a dozen times, just to stare down at the lively scene below them.

“That’s the one.” Apollo looked up at the tall metal box that disappeared into smog. He followed Cheryl down the ladder, making sure his hood stayed glued to his head. He felt Cheryl begin to tremble as they approached the building and honestly, he was a little scared as well. Not only were they going to steal from the person who had just attacked them and rid him of his magic, but he’d never been inside one of these buildings before. How did one get up? Were they really about to walk all that way?

The dusty interior of the building made Apollo question if anyone actually lived in the place. However, he followed Cheryl as she bolted towards a weird box thing in the wall and, after pushing a button, Apollo felt the ground start to move upward.

From the way Cheryl seemed to shrink, the last thing Apollo wanted to do was wait in the elevator. However, she had a point. Approaching Cheryl’s father right after a raid, right after his magic had been taken, probablyyyy wouldn’t be the best idea. “I’ll stay.” Apollo said, keeping his voice hushed as well. “But if you- If he tries anything. Just yell or s-something.” His voice quivered a bit at the end, he didn’t want to have to fight or confront. Still, something about Fathom made his blood boil with rage.

He squeezed Cheryl’s hand. “Go, b-be safe though.”

((Slightly less of a big boi post!!

If Apollo confronts Fathom he will throw hands

(TIME FOR APOLLO TO GO MAD